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A few of our latest Dell desktops have them, the price surcharge over a regular drive was low. They feel like a regular HDD, slightly faster than usual. The most used applications such as Windows and Office will start in less time. Nothing to write home about, the drive is still a cheap 7200 RPM...

I use the free disk migration software from Intel web site. It needs a Intel SSD target, and is basically Acronis True Image with some limitations. 100+ Windows 7 systems migrated to SSD successfully (with partition reduction/resize), all of them with MBR disks less than 2Tb in size. I never...

The switch has 80 ports, actually. It is old but technical specifications are still good. Backplane speed is 3.8 Gbps, each port has 512KB buffer, all the essential features are here, pre-owned gigabit/fiber modules are easily sourced from ebay. Not so useful anymore for general computing...

It's a sample of our 2007 line of displays. The inox steel frame is from the standard product catalog, the glass is cut on custom size. We are currently running a final deep discount clearance of this old display line (raw LCD monitor and glass only - no frame) on 10.4, 15, 17 and 37 inch...

My Prometeus BIZ XEN 256Mb VPS: root@xen2:~# uptime 20:26:34 up 573 days, 23:55,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 Prometeus services are premium grade.  

We use the Raspberry Pi to show the general statistics of our company solar panel installation. The plant has 12000 panels that are covering the roof of 3 large buildings, and has been commissioned in 2012 with a flash based application made by the german company SMA. It quickly became apparent...

A quick recap of the Raspberry Pi's I've put to good use at home or work: - 1 RDP thin client, connected to a 23'' monitor. I use it all the day. - 1 digital signage: it drives a LCD TV that shows some statistics and greetings in the company lobby. It is basically a web browser. - 5...

I had very good results from Yocto-thermocouple http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/products/usb-environmental-sensors/yocto-thermocouple. Very good software support for any OS, including Linux. This USB interface is supplied with two basic (and flimsy) thermocouples. In my application I used standard...

It is always entertaining to read about spacecraft's computer systems. They are radically different from mainstream commercial PC technology. The keyword to enter in Google search  is: Embedded Computer System on the Rosetta Spacecraft. It will find a PDF scientific paper that describes the...

A high disk failure rate could be caused by excessive temperatures, either now or in the past. Are all the fans working? Do you checked the BIOS warning log, to see if the server has overheated in the past? By the way, last year I received a full box of WD RED 3 Tb, and 30% of them failed in 2...

This platform seems to have a few useful enterprise features, such as snapshots. Each storage module (SAN) is connected to the network controller trough 4 gigabit connections; each server has a gigabit connection port. Basic performance tests are good, this ARM CPU is a lot better than the...

So, the Fully Buffered requirement is mainly a Fujitsu thing, I guess. I used to have many Fujitsu 54xx and 51xx servers and workstations, all of them accepted FB DIMMs only. 

Be sure to order the right RAM sticks. Many E54xx motherboards needs DDR2 ECC Fully Buffered DIMMs (FBDIMM, or -F series), the regular DDR2 ECC memory modules won't fit on the sockets. High capacity FBDIMMs have always been expensive. Check markings on the current memory modules to see the...

The motherboard form factor is ATX. Regular desktop boards have a 4 pin 12V CPU power connector; server boards like this one requires a PSU with 8 pin cable. Check your power supply connectors.

The difference between DACs is subtle and is mostly unnoticed on a low-end system, but the difference between speakers can be huge even at entry-point prices. The issue with Hi-Fi is exactly this: technical specifications are important, but they still don't cover the full picture. On my...

With 60 Hz cutoff there is no need for a powerful amplifier, because most of the sound energy is on the (missing) low frequency range. I once had a 15+15w amp on a similar small bookshelf setup, but with a much higher 89dB sensitivity, and the power level was not the worst limitation. The...

Bower & Wilkins 685 (2 way loudspeakers) powered by the T-Amp are a small and cheap speaker system I put togheter a while ago for a second home and still enjoy. The B&W 685 have been recently rewamped and rebranded 685 S2. At $700/pair at Best Buy (about the same price level in Europe) they...

My favorite cheap chinese USB DAC is the Fiio E10, and I will soon buy the newly released E10K. It is not the best DAC on the market, but: - the price/quality ratio is optimal, - it is small and portable, easy to connect to any computer, - Amazon will deliver it in a few days (unlike some...

The "RAID5 is bad for SSD" is a myth. RAID5 may be better than RAID10, depending on the data size and other considerations. See as example the third chapter of this paper: http://cesg.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/hotstorage13.pdf. RAID5 is worse than RAID10 for small writes; for bigger...

I suggest Venice and Rome. Both of them are world-class destinations, so I don't need to explain why you need to see them at least once. Venice airport is well connected to Paris, London and Rome with many flight options. The Venice Carnival will be from 31th january to 17th february 2015. This...